Russian gas exports to Greece still on rise

A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Giorgos Tsipras, Secretary General for International Economic Relations at the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, took place at the Company’s headquarters today.

The parties expressed their appreciation for the current state of the Russian-Greek partnership in the energy sector and discussed its development prospects. A focus was placed on efforts for securing transit of Russian gas across Greece to Italy as part of the TurkStream project.

Alexey Miller and Giorgos Tsipras agreed that the new pipeline project for gas exports to southern and southeastern Europe was a major step toward the diversification of supply routes and would make a large contribution to energy security in Greece and other countries of the region.

The parties also reviewed issues related to natural gas supplies to the Greek market. It was noted that in 2016 Gazprom had exported 2.68 billion cubic meters of gas to Greece (a 35 per cent increase versus 2015). The upward trend persisted in January and February 2017: Greece’s gas imports from Russia grew by 20.6 per cent compared to the same period of 2016.

Background

TurkStream is the project for the construction of a transit-free export gas pipeline stretching across the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further to Turkey’s border with neighboring countries. The first string of the gas pipeline is intended for Turkish consumers, while the second string will deliver gas to southern and southeastern Europe. Each string will have the throughput capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

On February 24, 2016, Gazprom, Edison SpA, and DEPA SA signed the Memorandum of Understanding on natural gas deliveries from Russia across the Black Sea and third countries to Greece and from Greece to Italy in order to set up a southern route for Russian gas supplies to Europe.